January 15, 2025
A woman with a penchant for deceit becomes entangled with a wealthy couple who live in a world where nothing is quite what it seems. Sloane Caraway lies about everything to everyone because "the truth is so uninteresting." But behind the easy bravado is a young woman who longs to feel special in ways that her often difficult working-class life never allowed. When she runs into Jay, a handsome game developer, in a Brooklyn park, she presents herself as a nurse named Caitlin. She tends to Jay's bee-stung daughter with assumed authority, all while dreaming of another encounter. She gets her wish when she meets Jay's wife, Violet, in the same park and receives an invitation to their home. Asked to become a nanny for the couple's daughter, Sloane enters a world that is anything but perfect. Stava engages readers start to finish not only with characters who hide their motivations from each other, but also a narrative built on unexpected twists: As much as Sloane wants to literally become Violet and have her beautiful life, Violet wants nothing more than to dispense with her identity and escape a cheating husband who loves her only for her money. Shifting points of view add psychological complexity to each of the three main characters. There are no heroes or villains in this story: only people drawn to each other for things--like money or freedom--that they desire enough to engage in dangerous games of deception. This compelling, tautly plotted book will appeal not only to lovers ofGone Girl-style tales of suspense but anyone with a taste for smart, well-crafted fiction. A page-turning thrill ride of a story from a debut novelist.
COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
February 1, 2025
If an unreliable narrator tells you up front that she's unreliable, does that make her reliable? That's one very important question readers will ask themselves as they read this gripping debut thriller. Sloane, our narrator, tells us on the first page that she is a liar. Wearing her nurse-like scrubs from the day spa where she works, she pretends to be a nurse and tells an upset father, Jay Lockhart, how to remove a bee stinger from his daughter's foot. Later she doubles down on the lie and talks herself into a job as the Lockhart family's nanny. A habitual liar like Sloane can tell when other people are lying, and it isn't long before she senses that all is not what it seems in the Lockhart family. How deep does the lying go, and how dark? And, perhaps more important: can we trust what Sloane is telling us about the man, his wife, and their daughter? The author has taken on quite a challenge here, and she pulls it off spectacularly. You won't soon forget Sloane.
COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.